


A Raven In Flight

by Saquira



Series: A Sundial In Shade [2]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, F/M, Female Merlin, Gen, Magic, Magic-Users, Male-Female Friendship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-24
Updated: 2016-08-24
Packaged: 2018-08-10 19:36:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7858330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saquira/pseuds/Saquira
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>To a young woman who's lived her whole life on a farm, Camelot was a wonder to behold. With stone walls that towered over the streets and soldiers clad in shining chainmail and clean crimson brigandine's guarding the city, people travelling from all over the kingdom and beyond it to sell their wares in the city and more people than you could possibly count, Camelot far surpassed Merlin's every expectation. </p>
<p>However, if there's one thing she excels at it's finding trouble – or perhaps more accurately, being found – and trouble just so happens to be the one thing that Camelot never runs out of. The ban against magic brings frequent attacks from magical creatures and sorcerers alike which means that Merlin has more than got her work cut out for her in protecting the prince. Now she just has to make sure she doesn't get caught doing it or she'll probably be joining the sorcerers on the pyre.</p>
<p>
  <em>AU Season 1</em>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Raven In Flight

**Author's Note:**

> I wasn't intending to post this until I'd finished some more chapters, but as that's taking a while I decided to go ahead anyway. Maybe posting it is the kick in the butt I need to finally continue. That being said, I start my first term in university on Monday, so don't go expecting too much. 
> 
> 39 chapters is the goal. There might be more or less depending on what I change, add or remove from the story, but that's the initial estimation. Much of it is going to be at the least very similar to the series as my major changes don't begin until the next story, but I'm trying to come up with lots of minor changes and additions to keep it fairly fresh. I do have a lot of ideas for what Emrys means and what being Emrys really means for Merlin, and I will be incorporating those into the story, but that's still pretty far off.
> 
> This story, like most of the rest, has been beta read by Whyte. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy it, and if there's any events in particular you wish to read about or read the fallout from feel free to say so and I might just decide to incorporate them into the story.

**Chapter I**

**-** **The Physician's Apprentice** **-**

**The Dragon's Call: Part 1**

The courtyard where the spectacle of the day was set to take place was filled up by townsfolk by the time the royal family arrived to oversee it. The king and his son looked down upon the crowd from the balcony, flanked by a couple of guards, as the set up of the headsman's block was finished and a man in shackles was brought forward. Faces could be seen in the castle windows, and through one of the windows a young raven-haired noblewoman gazed with distaste upon the proceedings. 

“Let this serve as a lesson to all. This man, Thomas James Collins, is adjudged guilty of conspiring to use enchantments and magic. And, pursuant to the laws of Camelot, I, Uther Pendragon, have decreed that such practices are banned on penalty of death. I pride myself as a fair and just king, but for the crime of sorcery, there is but one sentence I can pass.” When the king finished speaking he raised his arm and lowered it swiftly, and the executioner swung his axe and took the man’s head off in one swing. 

Most of the onlookers averted their gazes, amongst them the young noblewoman, but a few kept watching even as the head was separated from its body and fell into the basket beneath the platform. One of those who did not look away was a young woman, dressed in the clothes of a man, who watched the proceedings from the back of the crowd.

“When I came to this land, this kingdom was mired in chaos, but with the people's help magic was driven from the realm. So I declare a festival to celebrate twenty years since the Great Dragon was captured and Camelot freed from the evil of sorcery. Let the celebrations begin,” the king exclaimed before there was a raucous in the crowd and people parted to allow the woman whose wailing could be heard over the whole courtyard to come forth. 

“There is only one evil in this land, and it is not magic! It is you! With your hatred and your ignorance! You took my son! And I promise you, before these celebrations are over, you will share my tears. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a son for a son.” As she finished speaking the king ordered his guards to seize her, but they'd hardly begun to move before a spell left the woman’s' lips and she vanished in a whirlwind of smoke.

* * *

The young woman who wore the clothing of a man didn't linger very long in the courtyard before heading into the castle through a side entrance. Quickly realising that she wouldn't get anywhere on her own, she approached the first guard she saw to ask for directions. “Where would I find Gaius, the court physician?” 

“In there, first door on your left, and then up the stairs. Can't miss it,” he said and pointed to the doorway right next to them. She thanked him quickly before following his directions. When she came up the stairs the door was already ajar, but she knocked all the same before peeking her inside. 

“Hello?” she called out before stepping inside fully and closing the door behind her. It was a fairly large chamber, and her eyes scanned over the scattered knick knacks and numerous alchemy ingredients as she wandered further inside. “Hello? Gaius?” she called out when she finally spotted an older man standing on a stepladder next to a bookcase on the wall. He made to look backwards, but slipped and fell, and the railing broke underneath him as the young woman drew in a sharp breath. 

Then her eyes flashed gold and everything around her slowed down, providing the woman with enough time to search for a solution as her eyes finally fell upon the bed on the other side of the room. Her eyes flashed gold again as the bed moved across the floor and stopped underneath the falling man, and suddenly time returned to normal as the old physician fell onto the bed. 

“What did you just do?” the old man gasped out as he struggled to get out of the bed and turned to face the young woman whose eyes had widened exponentially. She could get nothing out but an incoherent mumble, so the old man prompted her again. “Tell me!” 

“I- I- I have no idea what happened.” As she finally regained some of her equilibrium the young woman uttered the first words that came to mind as the old man watched her, but her feeble excuse only served to agitate him further.

“If anyone had seen that...” 

“Er, no! That- that was, that was nothing to do with me. That- that was...” she began.

“I know what it was! I just want to know where you learned how to do it!” he uttered finally, raising his voice. 

“Nowhere,” she answered weakly.

“So how is it you know magic?”

“I don't.”

“Where did you study?... Answer me!” The frustration was obvious in the old man's voice as the young woman finally decided to tell him the truth.

“I- I've never studied magic or, or been taught.”

“Are you lying to me, girl?” he asked suspiciously and she sighed rather audibly in return, continuing to meet his eyes.

“What do you want me to say?” she asked finally, completely at a loss for how to proceed with the strange situation. 

“The truth!”

“I was born like this!” she exclaimed finally, and the old physician was so surprised that he only watched her for a few moments before continuing his interrogation. 

“That's impossible! Who are you?” Gaius asked finally.

“Oh, erm...” She squirmed slightly in place before pulling of her backpack and rooting through it. “I have this letter,” she said when she finally got a hold of the folded letter and held it out for the old man to take. He merely watched it for a few moments before once again speaking up.

“Just tell me who you are, I can read the letter later.” 

“I'm Merlin.” Gaius visibly startled at the revelation. 

“Hunith's daughter?” he queried, and the young woman nodded excitedly. 

“Yes!” she answered, happy to finally be recognised.

“But you're not meant to be here till Wednesday!” Gaius exclaimed in confusion, and the happy expression left her face as she watched him with no small amount of confusion.

“It is... Wednesday,” she stated, watching him strangely.

“Ah, right then. You better put your bag in there,” Gaius said and gestured towards a door further in. She nodded and picked her bag up again before beginning to walk towards the door. She stopped after a few moments to turn back to the old man.

“You- you won't say anything about, erm...” she trailed off...

“No,” Gaius answered and she continued to walk. “Although, Merlin, I should say thank you,” he continued a moment later with a smile, and the young woman stopped briefly to once again look back at him. There was a slight blush upon her cheeks and she looked surprised, but she merely nodded with a small smile of her own before heading up the few steps to the other room and entering what seemed to be a small bedchamber. 

Just opposite to the door was a bed. To the left of it, between the bed and the wall stood a small table with a candle on it, and an open window let in the sunlight on her left. On her right, just far enough from the bed so that you could walk between the furniture, stood a table and a cupboard.

Merlin dumped her bag on the bed before stepping up to look out of the window, and a smile spread over her lips at the view. In the sunlight she could see most of the city from her viewpoint as well as much of the farmlands and forests beyond the city gates.

* * *

After the young woman had disappeared behind the door of her new chambers Gaius went over to the table and sat down upon the bench. He opened the letter that Merlin had brought with her and began to read.

_ My dear Gaius,  _

_ I turn to you for I feel lost and alone and don't know whom to trust. It is every mother's fate to think her child is special, and yet I would give my life that Merlin's were not so. Ours is a small village and she is so clearly at odds with people here that, if she were to remain, I fear what would become of her. She needs a hand to hold, a voice to guide her, someone that might help her find a purpose for her gifts. I beg of you, if you understand a mother's love for her daughter, keep her safe, and may God save you both.  _

_ Hunith _

When he finished Gaius' eyes strayed momentarily to Merlin's door, then he threw the letter on the fire and got back to his work.

* * *

The raven-haired young noblewoman was looking down upon the courtyard through a window when a door opened and closed some distance behind her. Her dark blue gown looked almost black against the light that still shone in through the windows despite the late hour.

“Morgana,” the king called out as he came closer, and the young woman tore her eyes from whatever she was looking at and turned to face him. 

“Yes?” she asked, stepping away from the windows. 

“What is this? Why are you not joining us at the feast?” he asked sternly as he came to a stop before her and the red fabric of his cloak slowly stopped moving. He was wearing his crown to mark the occasion, and a fine dark blue coat could be glimpsed underneath the cloak.

“I just don't think chopping someone's head off is cause for a celebration,” she answered him before looking away. “That poor mother.” He was unable to meet her eyes as she uttered her sympathies, but turned his eyes back to hers as soon as she fell silent. 

“It was simple justice for what he'd done.”

“To whom? He practised some magic, he didn't hurt anyone,” Morgana asked incredulously, brows furrowing as her eyes met his without hesitation.

“You were not around twenty years ago, you have no idea what it was like,” he responded agitatedly, but she wasn't about to back down just like that.

“How long are you going to keep punishing people for what happened then?”

“Until they realise there is no room for magic in my kingdom! You will be with me when I greet Lady Helen.” The anger was evident in his voice and he turned from her to walk away, clearly not wishing to discuss the matter further.

“I told you! I want no part in these celebrations!” she called after him, and he turned back to face her again.

“I'm your guardian! I expect you to do as I ask. If you show me no respect at least respect our finest singer,” he said angrily, and then turned away from her again to head back to the feast.

“You know, the more brutal you are, the more enemies you will create!” she called out after the king as he took his leave. He didn't pause to offer any response or reprimand, and she watched him walk away for a few moments before she turned back to the window.

* * *

When Merlin woke the next day she could have sworn that someone was whispering her name in her ear, yet when she looked around there was no one but her present in the small bedchamber. She didn't allow her thoughts to linger on the mystery for very long, as the sun was already shining in through her window. She got up off the bed and fetched a simple blue dress from the cupboard where she'd put her things the day before. Once she'd put it on Merlin put her hair up in a braid and tied a red scarf around her neck before heading out through the door into the main chamber of the physician's chambers. 

Gaius was already seated at the table with a bowl of porridge when she came out. 

“I got you water. You didn't wash last night,” he said and gestured to the bucket that was standing on the edge of the table. 

“Sorry,” Merlin said with an apologetic smile as she reached the table.

“Help yourself to breakfast,” the physician told her and gestured to the bowl of porridge that he'd placed on her side of the table. She sat down and began to eat as he watched her, and then Gaius subtly reached his hand out towards the bucket. He knocked it over, and Merlin jumped to her feet in surprise as her eyes flashed gold and both the bucket and the water froze in the air. Gaius gasped, and as a result Merlin flinched once again as her concentration broke. The bucket and water fell to the floor with a clatter and a splash as she watched it before she turned her eyes back to Gaius.

“How did you do that? Did you incant a spell in your mind?” he asked curiously as his eyes met hers and Merlin shrugged, somewhat apologetically.

“I don't know any spells.”

“So what did you do? There must be something,” he stated, continuing to watch her as she headed across the floor to fetch the mop.

“It just happens,” she answered as she begun to mop up the water from the floor.

“Well, we better keep you out of trouble. You can help me until I find some paid work for you. Here,” Gaius said as he placed a small sack and a bottle on the table next to him. “Hollyhock and Feverfew for Lady Percival, and this is for Sir Olwin. He's as blind as a weevil, so warn him not to take it all at once.”

“Okay,” Merlin answered as she took the items.

“And here,” Gaius continued as he held out a plate for her with a sandwich. She took it with a thankful smile before heading for the door. “Off you go. And Merlin! I need hardly tell you that the practice of any form of enchantments will get you killed.” She just raised her hand in a wave to show that she'd heard as she ate the sandwich and headed out through the door. 


End file.
